1.Everyone shall possess the right to freely express and publicise his thoughts in words, images or by any other means, as well as the right to inform others, inform himself and be informed without hindrance or discrimination
2.Exercise of the said rights shall not be hindered or limited by any type or form of censorship
Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, Article 37.º

Breaking News: Cipriano Case

Lisbon, 25 Set (Lusa) - The Court of Faro accepted the appeals of Leonor Cipriano (mother of the missing child in Figueira, Faro), of the former PJ inspector Gonçalo Amaral and of the officer Nunes Cardoso, both tried in a case of alleged torture and other crimes.

Without determining the perpetrators of the alleged aggressions to the mother of Joana Cipriano, the Court of Faro acquitted of torture the former inspectors of the Judiciary Police (PJ) Paulo Pereira Cristóvão, Marques Leonel Morgado and the agent still in active Paulo Marques Bom, but condemned Gonçalo Amaral and António Nunes Cardoso for other crimes.

The conviction of the former PJ Inspector, who was also involved in investigating the disappearance in the Algarve of the British girl Madeleine McCann, also received an appeal from Leonor Cipriano, with the lawyer Marcos Aragão Correia, considering the sentence insufficient.

To the inspector António Nunes Cardoso was imposed a sentence of two years and three months for forgery of a document, also with a suspended sentence for the same period.

The Joana case goes back to 2004. The eight year old disappeared on 12 September, in the village of Figueira, Portimão, and the investigation led to charges of Leonor Cipriano and her brother, João Cipriano, both convicted in the first instance Court to 18 years in prison each.

In March 2006, following an appeal, the Supreme Court of Justice lowered the sentence to 16 years in prison for Leonor Cipriano and João Cipriano.

If I understand correctly, we are back to square one in what concerns the alleged beating of Leonor Cipriano. She, Goncalo Amaral and Nunes Cardoso all appealed against the decision of the judge in the first trial. Considering that Goncalo Amaral and Nunes Cardoso were found guilty by association with an unpecified beating by persons unknown(!) this has to be a good thing.

If I understood correctly it was appeals all around, so I suppose it means we are back at square one, maybe another trial and of course, more tax-payers money down the drain! Never mind, Portugal is not in a financial crises, there is no unemployement, the health services are doing great, our public education system is one of the best in Europe, all is fine in Socialist Paradise!

Hang on here! A woman whose sentence for killing a child has been reduced makes an appeal to a court for a more severe sentence against a police inspector for making a "false statement"? Either this is mad or I am ....

What this means is that Aragão Correia will try to get a harsher sentence for Gonçalo Amaral, his favourite target. His appeal is basically for that.

Gonçalo and the other PJ officer are appealing against the court ruling on the case of the alleged aggressions to Leonor Cipriano.

Remember that the images that showed Leonor with panda eyes, were not even the originals, they were presented on court on a digital platform [CD]. Also, no PJ officers were blamed for the said aggressions. Leonor Cipriano, on the total gave 6 inconsistent versions of the events of that night.

Also remember that an inmate at the same prison where Leonor Cipriano was, stated that she was beaten up by other inmates, because they knew she had killed her own daughter.

On a final note also remember that the person who disclosed Leonor Cipriano's alleged aggressions issue in 2005, on the Expresso newspaper with the photos which actually were under the secrecy of justice, was an opportunistic lawyer/journalist who today is the president of the Lawyer's Order, Marinho Pinto.

Marinho Pinto for the first time in the Portuguese legal history used the mighty arm of the Lawyer's Order, in the person of top-lawyer Rodrigo Santiago, to be an assistant in favour of Leonor Cipriano, the woman who murdered her own daughter. This also meant that the LO president couldn't be called as a witness.

Marinho Pinto's assistance also helped Aragão Correia winning the case; Aragão is so mad & bad lawyer that he was even thrown out of Court.

After learning about all the craziness of the European inquisitorial system of justice, I am beginning to think the adversarial system that the UK and USA have is not that bad after all, although that leaves much to be desired.

Yet at least you can get a jury of ordinary people sitting in judgement for these kinds of trials, instead of the being open to abuse of political machinations which appears to be the case under this system.